Structural foam for packaging

ABSTRACT

A packaging material is provided which is comprised of a plank of structural foam and a plurality of vertical interior voids defined in the plank. The ratio of the height of each interior void is between about 60% and about 65% of the height of the plank, and the diameter of each interior void is between about 55% and about 65% of the height of the void. Each interior void has a bottom portion defining a conical dome shape. The dome-shaped interior voids advantageously allow for the use of lower cost lower, lower density material to be used to archive the same performance as higher density, or higher cost materials. When the structural foam has a material density of 1.2# it exhibits properties of structural foam having a material density of 2.2#, and when the structural foam has a material density of 2.2# it exhibits properties of structural foam having a material density of 4.0#.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a non-provisional of and claims priority to U.S. Patent Application No. 63/044,370, filed Jun. 26, 2020, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to structural foam packaging materials.

BACKGROUND

Cushioning devices for product packaging and shipping are increasingly needed as global trade continues to expand. As more complicated and expensive electronic devices are shipped around the world, there is a need for more sophisticated and more effective shock absorbing cushioning devices to protect these products during shipping. But existing packaging systems that seek to provide better cushioning properties typically come at higher cost because they use higher-density packaging materials.

Some known packaging materials and devices include bubble wrap, air bags, honeycomb cardboard, and polystyrene (styrofoam peanuts). Some of these materials are heavy and therefore increase shipping and fuel costs. Other known packaging materials, such as polystyrene blocks or molded plastics, are designed and manufactured specifically for particular products. However, this can be wasteful and unduly expensive as different specialty materials need to be made for a large variety of different products and cannot typically be re-used. Other materials such as air bags and bubble wrap often get destroyed in shipping and cannot be re-used. Furthermore, many of the plastics and polystyrene materials are not recyclable or biodegradable.

Structural foam materials also are used in packaging. Polyethylene (PE) and Polypropylene (PP) foams are manufactured in two primary methods: extruded and molded. In the case of extruded foams, various densities of raw granular grains of PE and PP material are melted and then forced through an extrusion process, resulting in planks of various thickness and densities of material. These planks are then manipulated further via cutting and die pressing to create fabricated cushion devices for packaging and other industries.

In the case of molded PE and PP, the process entails the use of various densities of raw PE and PP material in a beaded form, that is then injected into a steel mold, and when pressurized with steam, allows for the beads to bond together to create a unified molded finished part. Molded PE and PP planks are manufactured with the same process, again in various densities, but not in various thicknesses as the planks are optimized for the current molding machine size. Both the extruded and molded foam processes create solid masses of foam in plank form and utilize the mass of the foam to achieve the required performance characteristics of the material. However, the more foam used, the higher the material costs, and a solid mass of foam is expensive. In addition, high density foam is required for protection of certain fragile products.

Accordingly, there is a need for a structural foam packaging material that is less expensive than existing material. There also is a need for a structural foam packaging material that allows use of less volumetric material. There is a need for a packaging cushion that effectively and efficiently addresses product fragility at lower cost. There is also a need for of a lower density structural foam that provides the protection of higher density material.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present disclosure alleviate to a great extent the disadvantages of known structural foam packaging materials by providing a structural foam with a plurality of vertical interior voids. The disclosure relates to geometric shapes to change the way packaging cushioning materials are utilized today. In particular, the disclosure explains how to create a lower cost material for packaging cushioning that also reduces the amount of material that ends up in landfills. Certain geometric shapes provide added strength to an existing material performance.

In exemplary embodiments, each interior void has a bottom portion defining a conical dome shape. The conical dome shape provides added strength and ease of use in the molding process. Certain ratios of height of the interior void to the height of the plank of structural foam and interior void diameter to height provide higher density cushioning properties using lower density material.

Exemplary embodiments of a packaging material comprise a plank of structural foam and a plurality of vertical interior voids defined in the plank. The plank has a particular height, and each interior void has a height and a diameter. The height of each interior void is between about 60% and about 65% of the height of the plank, and the diameter of each interior void is between about 55% and about 65% of the height of the void. Optimally, the height of each interior void is 62.5% of the height of the plank, and the diameter of each interior void is about 60% of the height of the void.

In exemplary embodiments, the plurality of vertical interior voids is arranged in a pre-determined pattern, and each interior void has a bottom portion defining a conical dome shape. The interior voids may be molded to have a skinned surface. In exemplary embodiments, the density of the structural foam is between about 1.3 pounds per cubic foot and about 2.8 pounds per cubic foot. When the structural foam has a material density of 1.2# it exhibits cushioning properties of structural foam having a material density of 2.2#. When the structural foam has a material density of 2.2# it exhibits cushioning properties of structural foam having a material density of 4.0#. The cushioning properties are comprised of one or more of tensile strength, durability, support, and shock absorption.

Exemplary embodiments of a packaging material comprise a plank of structural foam and a plurality of vertical interior voids defined in the plank. The plank has a particular height, and each interior void has a height, a diameter and a bottom portion defining a conical dome shape. The height of each interior void is between about 60% and about 65% of the height of the plank. When the structural foam has a density of 1.2# it exhibits properties of structural foam having a density of 2.2#. When the structural foam has a density of 2.2# it exhibits properties of structural foam having a density of 4.0#.

In exemplary embodiments, the diameter of each interior void is between about 55% and about 65% of the height of the void. The vertical interior voids may be arranged in a pre-determined pattern and may be molded to have a skinned surface. In exemplary embodiments, the density of the structural foam is between about 1.3 pounds per cubic foot and about 2.8 pounds per cubic foot. The cushioning properties could include tensile strength, durability, support, and shock absorption.

Exemplary embodiments of a packaging material comprise a plank of structural foam and a plurality of vertical interior voids defined in the plank. The plank has a particular height, and each interior void has a height, a diameter and a bottom portion defining a conical dome shape. The diameter of each interior void is about 60% of the height of the void. When the structural foam has a density of 1.2# it exhibits properties of structural foam having a density of 2.2#. When the structural foam has a density of 2.2# it exhibits properties of structural foam having a density of 4.0#.

In exemplary embodiments, the height of each interior void is about 62.5% of the height of the plank. The vertical interior voids may be arranged in a pre-determined pattern and may be molded to have a skinned surface. In exemplary embodiments, the structural foam has a density between about 1.3 pounds per cubic foot and about 2.8 pounds per cubic foot. The cushioning properties are comprised of one or more of tensile strength, durability, support, and shock absorption.

Accordingly, it is seen that structural foam packaging materials are provided which reduce the amount of material that needs to be used and provide added strength. Disclosed embodiments of low-density structural foam exhibit properties of higher-density structural foam. These and other features and advantages will be appreciated from review of the following detailed description, along with the accompanying figures in which like reference numbers refer to like parts throughout.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects of the disclosure will be apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1A is a perspective view of an exemplary embodiment of a packaging material in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 1B is a top view of the packaging material of FIG. 1A;

FIG. 1C is a side view of the packaging material of FIG. 1A;

FIG. 1D is a cross-sectional view of the packaging material of FIG. 1A;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an exemplary embodiment of a packaging material in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a top view of an exemplary embodiment of a packaging material in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 4A is a chart and graph depicting drop test data for a first drop from a height of 30 inches;

FIG. 4B is a chart and graph depicting drop test data for second, third, fourth, and fifth drops from a height of 30 inches;

FIG. 5A is a chart and graph depicting drop test data for a first drop from a height of 24 inches;

FIG. 5B is a chart and graph depicting drop test data for second, third, fourth, and fifth drops from a height of 24 inches;

FIG. 6A is a chart and graph depicting drop test data for a first drop from a height of 24 inches;

FIG. 6B is a chart and graph depicting drop test data for second, third, fourth, and fifth drops from a height of 24 inches;

FIG. 7A is a chart and graph depicting drop test data for a first drop from a height of 30 inches; and

FIG. 7B is a chart and graph depicting drop test data for second, third, fourth, and fifth drops from a height of 30 inches.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following paragraphs, embodiments will be described in detail by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are not drawn to scale, and the illustrated components are not necessarily drawn proportionately to one another. Throughout this description, the embodiments and examples shown should be considered as exemplars, rather than as limitations of the present disclosure. As used herein, the “present disclosure” refers to any one of the embodiments described herein, and any equivalents. Furthermore, reference to various aspects of the disclosure throughout this document does not mean that all claimed embodiments or methods must include the referenced aspects.

Referring to FIGS. 1A-3, an exemplary embodiment of a packaging material 1 will be described. The packaging material 1 is comprised of a plank 10 composed of structural foam 12. In exemplary embodiments, the density of the structural foam is between 1.3 pounds per cubic foot and 2.8 pounds per cubic foot. Exemplary embodiments have a density of 1.3 pounds per cubic foot, 1.9 pounds per cubic foot, or 2.8 pounds per cubic foot. The concept of structural foam 12 is to utilize unique structural design elements that are molded into the foam at the plank level. When done so with the correct geometric shape and ratios, the structural design elements advantageously allow for the use of less volumetric material of a lower density foam that then exhibits the same performance characteristics as a higher density foam material that does not contain any structural elements.

The key element in the structural foam design is the arched molded interior void elements, or interior voids 14, in the foam 12 of the plank 10. The interior voids 14 could be arranged in the plank 10 in any pre-determined pattern, such as evenly spaced, depending on the application and the items to be shipped. In exemplary embodiments, a pattern of interior voids 14 is evenly spaced across a 12″×12″×2″ blank size.

Advantageously, the interior voids 14 provide increased strength and cushioning capabilities. The interior voids 14 are vertically oriented in the plank 10. In exemplary embodiments, there is a 62.5%/37.5% ratio in height for each interior void 14 versus the overall material height 18 and a void diameter 20 equaling 60% of the void height 16. In other words, the height 16 of each interior void 14 is about 62.5% of the plank height 18, which is the optimal ratio for strength and cushioning. The void height 16 percentage of plank height 18 could be in the range of 60%-65% for good performance or even 50%-75%, but if the ratio is outside of the latter range the performance deteriorates significantly. Optimally, the void diameter 20 is about 60% of the void height 16. The void diameter could be 55%-65% of the void height for good performance, or 50%-80% but performance deteriorates as the ratio gets too low or too high.

In exemplary embodiments, each interior void 14 has a bottom portion 22 defining a conical dome shape 24. By utilizing the dome shape 24 of the interior voids 14, the density of the foam material advantageously acts as a higher density material. This is due to the shape of the arch or dome providing increased strength over material with no arched or dome shape. When molded in the specific structural foam shape and ratios noted above, any density of molded PE and PP will exhibit an increased level of performance that aligns to the performance of higher density PE and PP material, with results showing an average performance increase exceeding 90% in lab testing. The molded aspect of the structural foam plank 10 is key as it also provides for a skinned surface 26 that allows for precise shaping of the interior voids and arched domed shape 24.

The dome-shaped 24 interior voids 14 advantageously allow for the use of lower cost lower, lower density material to be used to archive the same performance as higher density, or higher cost materials. The structural foam has a density between about 1.3 pounds per cubic foot and about 2.8 pounds per cubic foot. More particularly, exemplary structural foam products have a material density of 1.3 pounds per cubic foot, 1.9 pounds per cubic foot, or 2.8 pounds per cubic foot. As discussed in more detail herein, the structural foam packaging material exhibits properties of structural foam having much greater densities.

More particularly, using this design technique, it turns 1.2# material density foam into 2.2# foam, which is twice the cost of 1.2# foam. It also turns 2.2# material density foam into 4# foam, which costs 3× the more than 2# foam. It scales up accordingly from there. Structural foam having a 4.0# material density exhibits cushioning properties of foam having material densities up to 9.0#, which is about the highest density structural foam materials can be made. Thus, in exemplary embodiments, when the structural foam 12 has a density of 1.2# it exhibits the strength and cushioning properties of structural foam having a density of 2.2#. Similarly, when the structural foam has a density of 2.2# it exhibits the strength and cushioning properties of structural foam having a density of 4.0#. Such properties include cushioning characteristics to protect and support the weight of the products being shipped.

Currently, there is nothing like the above-described structural foam 12 available on the market that can perform like a higher density material with lower density material. The most significant benefits of the disclosed structural foam 12 are the following: (1) Cost reduction as the result of using lower density material to achieve the same performance as higher density materials; this applies to all densities of PE and PP material. (2) Cost reduction via volumetric reduction of overall materials; the structural foam design reduces the amount of PE and PP material usage by 26% in the samples tested. (3) Freight cost reduction of foam weight versus current cushioning products of the same material. (4) Environmental impact reduction both by the use of less volume of material and the also the use of lower density materials. (5) The primary impact to the world will be a 47% reduction in the environmental impact of disposing of the waste of used packaging materials.

The inventor evaluated multiple ratios of the conical shape voids to determine which height and width to use for testing and settled on the above-described specifications. Tooling was made to create the 12″×12″×2″ molded parts for testing and samples created of the material density of 1.3 pounds per cubic foot, 1.9 pounds per cubic foot, and/or 2.8 pounds per cubic foot. Summary drop test data for several testing runs are shown in FIGS. 4A-4B, 5A-5B, 6A-6B, and 7A-7B.

The process to validate the effects of the structural foam was to create a standard set of cushioning curves utilizing standard materials and comparing them against the curves generated utilizing structural foam. The process entailed placing a sample of the material to be tested into a dynamic compression tester that measures the shock responses of the material and generates a cushion curve for the material measured.

The inventor tested exact sizes of the standard plank materials in various densities to confirm their specified performance levels and then tested the same sizes of structural foam samples in the same identical manner to compare the performance levels in G force of both materials. As shown by the drop test data, the standard plank materials performed as specified from the manufacturer with regards to G level performance at the thickness of material tested.

The structural foam was then tested to the same test process with the data recorded. In this case, the structural foam of a lower density material was observed to perform in similar manner relative to G levels and deceleration as the higher density plank foam. This was evident with testing the structural foam in 1.3# density, as it performed like 2.2# plank foam, with 1.9# density foam performing like 4# plank foam. This ratio continued to scale up; as the density of the structural foam was increased, the structural foam continued to perform like a foam of more than 2× density material. The results show that by adding the above-described interior voids to the foam material, the foam performance equals that of a much higher density material regardless of the density of the materials used, thus creating a lower cost and more environmental solution cushioning solution.

Thus, it is seen that packaging materials comprised of structural foam are provided. It should be understood that any of the foregoing configurations and specialized components may be interchangeably used with any of the apparatus or systems of the preceding embodiments. Although illustrative embodiments are described hereinabove, it will be evident to one skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope of the disclosure. It is intended in the appended claims to cover all such changes and modifications that fall within the true spirit and scope of the disclosure. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A packaging material comprising: a plank of structural foam, the plank having a height; a plurality of vertical interior voids defined in the plank, each interior void having a height and a diameter; wherein the height of each interior void is between about 60% and about 65% of the height of the plank; and wherein the diameter of each interior void is between about 55% and about 65% of the height of the void.
 2. The packaging material of claim 1 wherein each interior void has a bottom portion defining a conical dome shape.
 3. The packaging material of claim 1 wherein the plurality of vertical interior voids is arranged in a pre-determined pattern.
 4. The packaging material of claim 1 wherein the interior voids are molded to have a skinned surface.
 5. The packaging material of claim 1 wherein the material density of the structural foam is between about 1.3 pounds per cubic foot and about 2.8 pounds per cubic foot.
 6. The packaging material of claim 5 wherein: when the structural foam has a material density of 1.2# it exhibits properties of structural foam having a material density of 2.2#; and when the structural foam has a material density of 2.2# it exhibits properties of structural foam having a material density of 4.0#.
 7. The packaging material of claim 1 wherein the height of each interior void is about 62.5% of the height of the plank.
 8. The packaging material of claim 1 wherein the diameter of each interior void is about 60% of the height of the void.
 9. A packaging material comprising: a plank of structural foam, the plank having a height; a plurality of vertical interior voids defined in the plank, each interior void having a height, a diameter, and a bottom portion defining a conical dome shape; wherein the height of each interior void is between about 60% and about 65% of the height of the plank; wherein when the structural foam has a material density of 1.2# it exhibits properties of structural foam having a material density of 2.2#; and wherein when the structural foam has a material density of 2.2# it exhibits properties of structural foam having a material density of 4.0#.
 10. The packaging material of claim 9 wherein the diameter of each interior void is between about 55% and about 65% of the height of the void.
 11. The packaging material of claim 9 wherein the plurality of vertical interior voids is arranged in a pre-determined pattern.
 12. The packaging material of claim 9 wherein the interior voids are molded to have a skinned surface.
 13. The packaging material of claim 9 wherein the ratio of the height of each interior void is about 62.5% of the height of the plank.
 14. The packaging material of claim 10 wherein the diameter of each interior void is about 60% of the height of the void.
 15. A packaging material comprising: a plank of structural foam, the plank having a height; a plurality of vertical interior voids defined in the plank, each interior void having a height, a diameter, and has a bottom portion defining a conical dome shape; wherein the diameter of each interior void is about 60% of the height of the void; wherein when the structural foam has a material density of 1.2# it exhibits cushioning properties of structural foam having a material density of 2.2#; and wherein when the structural foam has a material density of 2.2# it exhibits cushioning properties of structural foam having a material density of 4.0#.
 16. The packaging material of claim 15 wherein the height of each interior void is about 62.5% of the height of the plank.
 17. The packaging material of claim 14 wherein the plurality of vertical interior voids is arranged in a pre-determined pattern.
 18. The packaging material of claim 14 wherein the interior voids are molded to have a skinned surface. 